Iran demands apology from Hollywood stars

Published on Sunday 1 March 2009 12:41

A team of visiting Hollywood actors and members of the movie industry including Annette Bening should apologise for films such as 300 and The Wrestler which have angered many in Iran, said the artistic adviser to Iran's president today.

Javad Shamaqdari, the art and cinema adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said members of the Iranian cinema community should not meet with representatives from the nine-member team until they apologise.

"In my viewpoint, it is a failure to have an official meeting with one who is insulting," Mr Shamaqdari said.

The group includes the President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Sid Ganis; actors Ms Bening, and Alfre Woodard; producer William Horberg; AMPAS Special Events Programmer and Exhibitions Curator Ellen Harrington; and Tom Pollock, the former Universal Pictures chairman.

According to the website of Iran's Cinema Association, the group arrived on Friday in Iran. They met a group of Iranian artists on Saturday, and will be holding educational seminars in directing, screenwriting, acting, producing, marketing and film distribution.

The film 300, which portrays the battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C., in which a force of 300 Spartans held off a massive Persian army at a mountain pass in Greece for three days, angered many Iranians for the way Persians are depicted as decadent, sexually flamboyant and evil in contrast to the noble Greeks.

Iranians also criticised The Wrestler starring Mickey Rourke as a rundown professional wrestler who is preparing for a rematch with his old nemesis, The Ayatollah. During a fight scene, The Ayatollah tries to choke Rourke with an Iranian flag before Rourke pulls the flagpole away, breaks it and throws it into the cheering crowd.

Neither movie was ever shown in Iran.

Mr Shamaqdari says Iranians will warmly host the visiting Americans on what has been described as an unofficial visit to Iran "but it will not stop Iranians from demanding an apology".

While American actors such as Sean Penn have travelled to Iran, it is rare for such a large group to visit. In February, Iran denied visas to a US women's badminton team that had been invited to compete in a tournament in Iran.

The visits come as President Barack Obama has indicated a new willingness to open up relations with Iran.

Relations between the two countries have been strained over concerns in the West that Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapons programme, something Tehran denies. The US has also alleged that overwhelmingly Shiite Iran supports Shiite militias in Iraq, which Iran says is not true.

The two countries have not had diplomatic relations since the Islamic Revolution and the hostage-taking at the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979.